Man charged with hate crime after threatening police

TACOMA, Wash. — Tacoma police arrested Mark Tolson following a domestic violence incident on July 16. Authorities say Tolson threatened to kill a police officer because the officer was white.

According to the charges, 55-year-old Tolson, who is African-American, was being booked into the Pierce county jail when he repeatedly mentioned the 2009 murders of four Lakewood police officers, telling the officer arresting him he would “make him like them,” while calling him a white racist cop.

“We have a situation here where the officer took these threats seriously and felt they were motivated by race based both on the defendant’s comments, but also on this national atmosphere,” said Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Lindquist, referring to recent ambush attacks on police similar to the 2009 murders.

In his report, the officer, identified in court documents as officer Wolfe wrote, “Due to the recent and increasing national threats and attacks on police officers, I perceived this threat to be viable due to Tolson's violent criminal history and his clearly expressed racial hatred for myself and white police officers.”

Tolson pleaded not guilty to that charge, along with a charge of threatening to kill officer Wolfe. Tolson was held on $80,000 bail.

Lindquist said Tolson told the officer when he got out of jail, he would track him down.

“And also brought up this environment, at least for the officer, of the recently murdered officers in Dallas,” Lindquist said.

Cox Media Group